Election Day: Where Civics and Politics Dare to Meet
Civics class is millions of memories away for some; but after learning about government, the Electoral College and citizenship in high school, most of us remember the droning pleas of our civics teacher urging us to vote, Vote, and VOTE.
And now, after months of listening to presidential debates, analyzing news reports of each candidate’s position on the issues and engaging in heated ‘discussions’ with just about anyone, the far-away voice of our civics teacher is blaring.
It is time to vote, it says. It is time to pick a new president, it says. It is time to pick the candidate — either John McCain or Barack Obama — who will become the most powerful leader in the world.
But hey, no worries and no pressure — right? Wrong.
In a campaign season interspersed with the free fall of the U.S. stock market, the historical plunge of home property values, the quaking reverberations of banking industry failures, the crippling rise of gas prices and monumental job losses, most Americans are feeling both hopeful and stressful as they prepare to head to the voting polls.
But head to the polls, we must. Because the politics of this presidential campaign awakened in us not only the desire to make a difference in the leadership and future of our country; but it has stirred in us the truths of our past civics lessons and an interest in putting into practice what we learned.
And we know that our civics teacher was right. None of our high-minded opinions and discussions is worth a hill of beans if we do not cast our vote.
What really matters is each of us making our way to the polling place on Election Day, closing the curtain behind us in the voting booth, and marking our choice for president. Only then do we honestly make a difference in our government and earn the right to consider ourselves true citizens.
And only then do we quiet that far-away voice, the one we thought was our civics teacher.
As it turns out, that voice is the voice of our own conscience.
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